Electronic devices, such as mobile phones and personal digital assistants (PDA's), often use memory sticks, memory cards or other forms of removable media. To transfer data contained in two instances of such removable media, it is often necessary to plug one into a personal computer or notebook computer, copy its content over, plug the second one into the personal computer or notebook computer, and finally transfer the copied contents from the personal computer or notebook computer over to the second instance of the removable media.
An electronic device often has customer specific data and content. In addition, client software often have associated data and configuration information. If the electronic device is lost, the customer specific data and content, data and configuration information associated with the client software, etc. are lost forever even though a new electronic device, similar to the old one, can be purchased. Backing up such data, configuration, etc., onto a personal computer (PC) is one option. Backing up such data in another storage device requires the use of a PC or similar device to transfer the information. Thus, backup of data from one storage media to another requires the availability or purchase of a PC.
People are always backing up data or transferring it to others, often with the use of a PC that plays the role of an intermediary device that can transfer data from one removable storage device to another. For example, floppy drives in PC are often used to copy data from one floppy to another.
From digital cameras and MP3 players to PDAs and USB flash drives, removable media such as flash memory technology (NOR, NAND) continues to permeate its way into more and more consumer electronic devices. The next big high-volume market poised to lead removable flash card sales in the near future is the cell phone market. An emerging feature these next generation multimedia phones will have is a memory expansion slot, and, as a result of strict design parameters flash vendors have introduced, a new generation of mobile flash storage formats. These formats include Memory Stick Duo, miniSD and Reduced-Sized MultiMediaCard (RS-MMC). Mobile media is becoming a necessity and people are buying them to store data. However, the same problems of requiring a PC to transfer data from one floppy to another also plagues the USB based flash drives (and also other removable media).
In response to the many different functions of handsets, the design of a memory expansion slot in the handset itself has emerged. These new phones that can accommodate memory cards give additional capacity to the phone making it possible to back-up files as well as transfer documents, pictures and music between the handset and a PC. And now, since removable flash memory cards are featured in smaller and smaller devices, a new generation of reduced-sized removable flash memory formats has emerged. These new flash cards offer significant savings in card area and in the area required to support the memory card in the host device, two critical design parameters for ultra-portable devices, such as handsets.
The first entry into this market was Sony's long awaited Memory Stick Duo. About half the size of a regular Memory Stick, the new Memory Stick Duo measures approximately 0.79 inches×1.22 inches×0.06 inches (20 mm×31 mm×1.6 mm) and weighs 0.07 ounces. This compares to the 2.0×0.85×0.11 inches and the 0.14 ounces that a regular Memory Stick packs. The size of the new Memory Stick Duo makes it just about equivalent to that of a Secure Digital card (or MultiMediaCard).
The Memory Stick Duo isn't a replacement for the original Memory Stick, which accounts for nearly a quarter of all flash memory card sales in the United States. Rather, the new Memory Stick Duo is an extension of the Memory Stick, enabling Sony to further reduce the size of its devices. Sony has also made available a full size adapter for the Duo that allows the card to fit in existing Memory Stick slots.
Another recent entry into the mobile removable flash memory card market is SanDisk's miniSD. MiniSD cards are targeted at the cell phone market, and in particular, the newest generation of 2.5G and 3G phones that are featuring camera functionality. The new format was developed by Toshiba, Matsushita and SanDisk, the three original developers of the SD card. The miniSD format was recently adopted by the SD Association as an ultra-small form factor extension to the SD card standard. Another key benefit of the miniSD card is its compatibility with the existing SD format. Since it's an extension of the SD card standard, it uses the same interface.
In November of 2002, the members of the MultiMediaCard Association finally approved a new reduced-sized standard for the MultiMediaCard, called, the Reduced-Size MultiMediaCard (RS-MMC). Like the Memory Stick Duo and miniSD card, the new RS-MMC is clearly designed for the mobile phone and PDA markets. The format can also serve as a platform for digital camera manufacturers to build even smaller cameras. The new storage form factor is about the same width as an existing MMCard, but measures almost one-half the size in length, reducing the total volume by more than 40 percent.
There's clearly an evident trend among removable flash card vendors toward smaller flash memory cards. However, it is not possible to transfer information from one removable flash card into another without the help of a computer, PC, or digital processing unit, even when the vendor is the same and even when the units are themselves similar in technology and capabilities.
KanguruGuard is a built in encryption and compression program which now comes standard on all KanguruMicro Drive2.0 models. Once activated, it creates two unique folders within your KanguruMicro Drive2.0. One folder, called “Secret”, automatically encrypts and compresses any data which is dragged and dropped into it. This is extremely useful when dealing with secure or confidential data. Access to this folder can only be established through use of a secure password of your choosing. The second folder, called “Zip”, compresses any data which is dragged and dropped into it. This effectively increases your KanguruMicro Drives storage capacity, allowing you to store 2-3 times the amount normally possible. However, there is no easy mechanism to transfer data across two units (similar or dissimilar ones) of KanguruMicro Drive2.0 models, without the use of a computer or PC or some such digital processing device. Also, if a PC were used to transfer contents from one KanguruMicro drive into another, a user has to retrieve them from one unit into another, or drag and drop contents from one unit into another. There is no automatic mechanism by which such transfers occur.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art through comparison of such systems with the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.